indigenous

Sen. Lynn Beyak’s views might be ‘typical’ but that doesn’t make them right

It’s sad to note that newly independent Senator Lynn Beyak is pretty much your typical Canadian. She comes off as well-intentioned and hard-working — the type of person you expect to see cheering in bleachers at small-town hockey rinks while holding a Tim Hortons coffee cup. I think of her when I think of the people Prime Minister Stephen Harper referred to with his “old-stock Canadians” quip last election campaign.

But I say “sadly” of her typical-ness because Beyak, who Conservative leader Andrew Scheer removed from the Conservative caucus last week after she refused to take down offensive letters from her Senate website, is just like a great number of Canadians who are genuinely unable to see how their views are harmful. (For the record, in a statement Monday, Beyak said no one from Scheer’s office spoke with her or her staff about taking down the letters.) Instead, these Canadians still seem to believe in that mythical free pass to which many white people — and I am a white settler myself — try to clutch: that of good intentions.

As long as we have good intentions, many of us believe, there is no need to apologize, and no need to grapple with the weight of ugly words such as “prejudice” and “racism.”

But just because a view is typical doesn’t make it right.

The Beyak saga might have only reached a breaking point now, but it has been brewing for many months, starting way back in March of last year, when Beyak said the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings of systemic racism against Indigenous peoples in Canada ignored the “well-intentioned” actions of instructors at residential schools.

“Mistakes were made at residential schools,” she said at the time, “in many instances, horrible mistakes that overshadowed some good things that also happened at those schools.” (Source: CBC News)

LeClair said he hadn’t been told if demonstrators were still occupying the area around the bypass Tuesday.

“We’re remaining in the area just to preserve the peace like we’ve said from the onset, just maintain public safety,” he said.

Protesters who support the Six Nations hereditary government, known as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, set up the barricade on Argyle Street South — Caledonia’s major thoroughfare — Aug. 10.

April 23, 2006

This spot — just south of town at the entrance of the former Douglas Creek Estates — is where a larger, more intense blockade and standoff took place in 2006 over land claims.

Indigenous people have renamed the site Kanonhstaton, “the protected place.”

This time around, demonstrators have said they were protesting the Ontario government’s transfer of a 154-hectare property known as the Burtch lands to the Six Nations Elected Band Council instead of the confederacy.

The return of the land, the former site of a correctional facility, was negotiated in exchange for the earlier barricade coming down more than 10 years ago.

April 21, 2006

On Monday, demonstrators issued a statement noting they had moved the barricade to the bypass “to unify the people of Six Nations and relieve pressure on our people and the residents of Caledonia.”

They erected a barricade on the bypass to “apply pressure on Canada to return to the negotiation table,” the statement reads.

It’s not clear what led the demonstrators to dismantle their barricade altogether or whether any issues were ironed out.

Commissioner Quits Murdered & Missing Indigenous Women Inquiry

While the national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls continues to lose high-level staff and appears in disarray, Canada’s Minister of Indigenous Affairs is urging everyone to not lose hope in the process.

July 1, 2017

Saskatchewan lawyer Marilyn Poitras issued her resignation in a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday. She is the first commissioner to resign from the inquiry.

In the letter, Poitras said she is “unable to perform my duties as a commissioner with the process designed in its current structure.”

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett told Ottawa media that she has met with the commission, reviewed their path forward and has faith in what they have planned. “They really do have the vision, the values, the tools and the plan to get this work done,” Bennett said.

She added there is “no question that we all agree that the communication has been an issue,” and they must do a better job telling families about their plan and vision. But she believes they will.

May 16, 2017

However, not everyone feels as though the inquiry, in its current form, will be able to do all that is hoped. Many families and Indigenous leaders have openly questioned the inquiry’s direction, its methods and chastised it for not involving more grassroots activists — who have been fighting for an inquiry for years. They feel the inquiry has lost its way and are demanding it begin again.

Poitras’ resignation follows a press conference held last Thursday by the inquiry’s Chief Commissioner Marion Buller. Buller gave an update on the probe’s summer progress after several controversies including high-profile resignations. On June 30, executive director Michèle Moreau quit the inquiry. Moreau cited “personal reasons” for her resignation.

June 3, 2015

Buller has defended the inquiry and its progress to date, saying she will meet all the milestones including an interim report in November even though only a handful of families have spoken at public hearings.

Buller has said staff leaving the inquiry have all done so for “personal reasons” and that some had dream job offers. The inquiry has five commissioners who are mandated to travel the country, hearing the testimonies of families, then making recommendations on how to protect vulnerable Indigenous women and girls. An RCMP report in 2014 indicated there are 1,181 Indigenous women and girls who have been killed violently or have disappeared. Many believe that number is low.(Source: Toronto Star)

Some people don’t want to celebrate Canada 150, and that’s okay

As Canada gets set to blow out candles representing 150 years of being a nation some very loud voices are trying to drown out some of the cheering and hoots of celebration. Indigenous peoples are marking July 1 as a day to remind maple leaf flag waving people that it is in fact a day to celebrate colonialism, institutional racism, broken treaties, and genocide of first nations. It has added a very interesting twist and pause for thought on a usually sanguine and relaxing Summer holiday in Canada. It contrasts greatly with the comparatively optimistic and boosterish Canada we know from the hued and grainy films and memories of Canada’s centennial year. Not everyone in Canada is celebrating Canada150, and that’s okay.

June 27, 2017

Like many 48 year olds and many generations before and after me I’m a student of school taught Canadian history through elementary and into university levels. It has served as a launch pad to explore and read up on topics not covered in deep detail in those courses. History knowledge lends itself to appreciate all kinds of other facets of life from food to music, sports, arts & entertainment, science to geography, and the peoples who populate this planet. There are evolving and new interpretations of history and culture being revealed which shouldn’t be resisted, but indeed, be embraced.

As a white middle aged male I admit to bristling somewhat to Canada150 celebrations being referred to as “Colonialism150.” It falls like a wet rag on this annual occasion, made more significant because it’s called sesquicentennial, and forces one to look at the narratives we’ve understood to have built a country, mixed with national pride, and enforced by maple leaves on everything we consume, and the unending smugness we have towards our so called “ally” to the south. It’s intended to make people think beyond the celebratory images of Prime Ministers, and great hockey goals, and unique national food products. To step into the shoes of recent immigrants to Canada, with varied interpretations of a nation outside of what Stephen Harper once infamously dubbed “old-stock” Canadians.

September 22, 2015

Colonialism150 should make us all reflect on the hardships faced by our own ancestors, whether indigenous and non-ingenous, and put the struggles they faced into the perspective of other humans into a present, and future context. My Scottish ancestors were chased around their island sanctuary of Lewis by their English overlords, as my English ancestors from my other set of genes were scraping enough farthings together to flee from soot choked polluted Croydon in the 1840s to emigrate to Upper Canada. They were hardly “colonists” in the sense of rich land owners ordering natives around upon their arrival. As for my Newfoundland and Irish ancestors from the 2 other branches of my genealogy, just trust me that it wasn’t exactly a cakewalk for them either when they arrived on these shores in the early part of the 1800’s.

The Canada150 is a celebration of changing times. We look back to that innocent and optimistic age of 1967, when Canada was a country still populated by the veterans of both world wars, when peacekeeping was set in motion, universal healthcare and CPP were brought in, Expo67 and the swinging sixties were at its height. The elder Trudeau was on the verge of becoming Prime Minister at the time. Contrast that time with the era Trudeau the younger and Canada Day 50 years later has become a celebration of progressiveness by acknowledging institutional oppression of the past, including the one-time progressive concept of placing indigenous children in residential schools. Great strides have gone to undoing the evils suffered by first nations in recent years, but also of multicultural groups, LGBT, women, children, to the physically and mentally challenged – and we all know much more still has to be done. For the case of indigenous people much has been promised by the current Federal government but accommodation has to go beyond what respected First Nations activist Roberta Jamieson calls “gesture politics“, as in Justin Trudeau’s asinine decision to turn the colonial architecture of the old U.S. Embassy across from the Parliament Bldgs into an aboriginal something-or-ever instead of a National Portrait Gallery.

June 12, 2008

Perhaps the most significant aspect for Canada in the past 50 years was the reconciliation/accommodation of Quebec and French speaking minorities across Canada. Think back to the Quiet Revolution of the 60s, which simmered before the FLQ crisis of the early 70s, giving rise to the Parti Québécois, Bill 101, two referenda on separation, the Bloc Québécois, district society, a lot of hollering over borders, some flag burnings, standoffs, and much eye rolling – there are still on going problems, as there always will be, but I think, with a lot of overtures handed to a province which had been overlooked, Quebec in Canada is a lot better off in 2017 than it was in 1967, and that is something to celebrate.

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In the 50 years leading to this country’s bicentennial I’m betting the effort made to linguistic minorities since 1967 will be extended to indigenous peoples going forward. That hope is worth waving a Canadian flag about, with the acknowledgement that many indigenous peoples are not celebrating on July 1, and more has to be done to reconcile with the first nations people of the nation we’ve been calling “Canada” for 150 years. Cheer for the accomplishments of a nation born in 1867, but respect the original people of that very land. – Graeme MacKay

LCBO extends hours in lead up to Canada Day as possible strike looms

The LCBO is extending hours amid fears of a last call due to a possible work stoppage next week.

March 4, 2015

With 8,000 unionized workers set to hit the bricks on Monday, the provincial alcohol monopoly some Liquor Control Board of Ontario stores will be open from 9 a.m. until 11 p.m. starting Thursday.

“Extended store hours across Ontario will help accommodate customer shopping leading up to Canada Day and possible labour disruption,” the LCBO said in a statement Wednesday.

“We continue to bargain with the union’s bargaining committee, with the union in a legal strike position as of 12:01 a.m. Monday,” the Crown agency continued.

“To ensure access to the best product selection and to avoid disappointment, customers should shop in advance of Sunday . . . if possible,” it said.

June 23, 2009

“We remain focused on reaching a fair, sustainable and responsible collective agreement. However, in the event of a labour disruption, we have plans to provide some level of service.”

Details on those strike provisions are not yet known.

In the event that workers are not on strike over the Canada Day long weekend July 1, the LCBO is hoping to keep as many as 450 of its 650 stores open with the longer hours that Sunday.

June 26, 2009

However, all outlets will be closed on the Saturday. They will be open Monday even though that is a statutory holiday.

Employees, 84 per cent of whom are part-time, are seeking greater certainty from the LCBO over scheduling and guarantees about eventually gaining full-time jobs.

Premier Kathleen Wynne, who is reforming labour laws this fall to protect workers in precarious employment circumstances better, has warned that “it’s a good idea for government to set an example in terms of good labour practice.” (Toronto Star)